


Change Is Kinda Really Nice

by Ever_Whovian, Joey_TheWriter



Series: Change [2]
Category: Julie and The Phantoms (TV), Julie and the Phantoms
Genre: Adorable Reggie, Found Family, Gen, I love those boys so much, Julie's dad questions everything, Luke shouldn't have said that, Reggie stares at food, Reggie's and Ray's bromance, Staring at food is a hobby for ghosts, We have ghosts in the garage, cute dead teen boys are living in our garage?, fridgelove, luke alex and reggie are the best
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-09-15
Updated: 2020-12-19
Packaged: 2021-03-06 18:00:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,539
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26483053
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ever_Whovian/pseuds/Ever_Whovian, https://archiveofourown.org/users/Joey_TheWriter/pseuds/Joey_TheWriter
Summary: Change is a natural thing. Julie being able to touch the guys was the first one, next came being visible to Carlos and Flynn from time to time... so it was only a matter of time before Ray caught Reggie staring into the fridge, right?
Series: Change [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1961311
Comments: 44
Kudos: 960





	1. We've got ghosts living in our garage?

**Author's Note:**

  * For [booksarefriends](https://archiveofourown.org/users/booksarefriends/gifts).



> This work was written by my best friend Joey.  
> But she doesn't understand this site,,, so, she forced me to publish it instead.  
> (Edit: Joey's name on ao3 is Joey_TheWriter, I added her as a co-creator; please check out her other works!) 
> 
> Check out her tumblr: [Joeysblog](https://joeysblog.tumblr.com/)  
> And that's my Tumblr if you're interested: [everwhovian](https://everwhovian.tumblr.com/)  
> Anyway Joey and I binge watched the series like countless of times. I definitely lost track on how many times I watched the show!  
> And we need more fanfictions!

Things have started to change after the night they played the Orpheum. 

At first, it was just the fact that they could touch Julie now, instead of just phasing through her, like they did before, which was something they tended to forget more than once in the first few days. More than a few bumped heads resulted out of that change, but it was a nice change. A great change. 

The fact that Carlos knew about Julie’s little boy band was also one of the newer changes, although the boy could only see them when performing for Julie, nonetheless Reggie and the little dude had found some ways to communicate and became great friends, with Carlos showing Reggie all sorts of music and movies the ghost boy needed to catch up on. Being out of the loop for 25 years definitely means there is great need to catch up on pop culture. 

A few weeks passed before they started to notice the next change. Flynn was over a lot these days, hanging out in the garage, whenever Julie and the boys rehearsed. Usually, the boys would poof out as soon as the music stopped, but with Flynn it was different now. She was actually able to see them for a few more moments before they vanished. And soon those few moments turned into minutes. And then into whenever they wanted. 

It was a great change, the boys liked having Flynn around. She was a great friend to Julie and soon to them too, with Alex and Flynn getting into some epic dance battles, Reggie being Reggie and Luke asking a hole into Flynn about this whole YouTube thing. 

But no one had an explanation why this change had happened. It was just another thing to add onto the list of things they would love some answers for. 

A few more weeks passed, and they discovered nothing new, until the next change hit them like a brick in the face. 

Reggie was standing in the kitchen, staring into the open fridge, eyeing the Lasagne Julie’s tía had brought over some time after lunch. 

“How many times do I have to tell the kids to close the fridge?” Ray muttered while moving into the kitchen. Reggie leaned back a bit and shot a quick glance at Ray, smiling, before going back to enjoying the last few seconds he had with the Lasagne in the fridge. 

“Hey Ray”, Reggie said, still staring at the Lasagne. “How was your day? Mine was okay, like always… I wish I could eat that Lasagne though…” Ray stopped dead in his tracks, starring at the fridge door… He did just see and hear… Did he? He moved towards the fridge, pulling the door even more open and starring at the boy in front of him. “Julie and Luke wrote another killer song, by the way, they said, we’d be ready to record it for YouTube in a few days, so that’s exciting news, isn’t it?”

Reggie turns his head, because usually Ray just shut the door, but he didn’t this time. Instead Reggie was met by these big blue eyes staring at him… As if he could actually see him… 

“Aren’t you in Julie’s band?” Ray said. Reggie just stared back, like a deer caught in the headlights. He did not expect Ray to see him. That has never happened before. That was new. And he had no idea how to react to this new change. 

“Uh oh… JULIE!”, he called instead, eyes wide, staring at Ray. 

“Julie didn’t mention that you were coming over…” Ray looked at the boy, and the fridge, before nodding to the side, indicating to the boy to move aside. Reggie did, after another confused moment, and Ray closed the fridge.

“Um, that’s uh…” Reggie, who usually always had something to say, had run out of word. “JULIE!!!” Footsteps were to be heard on the staircase. 

“What’s with the screaming, Reggie? I told you, I had to do homework… “, Julie trailed off, eyes wide when she saw her Dad standing right next to Reggie, who was clearly freaked out… “Dad! Hey, how was your day?” 

“Why didn’t you tell me that one of your bandmates will be over today?” Ray asked his daughter. “Are the others here as well?” 

Julie stared at her dad; Reggie did the same thing. Because neither of them had any idea as to how to react to this situation. They hadn’t thought that something like this could ever happen. For months now, Ray hadn’t been able to see any of the ghosts, beside the obvious occasions, when they performed… But now, out of the blue, he could suddenly see Reggie. What does that mean? 

“Oh, uh…” Julie said and tried to think of something. “Um…” She was never the best liar, and especially her dad would look right through her if she even attempted to lie. So, what was there really to say? Her dad could see Reggie! 

“What’s going on, Julie?” Ray asked and crossed his arms, looking between his daughter and Reggie. 

“Um… Dad, this is a kinda long story… Uhm, I’ll explain, but can you give us a few minutes?” She stared at her Dad with her big brown eyes, that are so much like her mother’s. “Meet us in the studio in fifteen, okay?” Julie motioned at Reggie to follow her; Ray watched while his daughter marched out of the room, Reggie stumbling behind her, looking back at Ray more than once. 

*******

“Ray can see me!” Reggie declared to the boys as soon as he and Julie burst through the doors of the studio, Luke stopped strumming on his guitar for a moment, Alex almost dropped his drumsticks and looked at Reggie in surprise. 

“My dad found Reggie staring into the fridge…” Julie said. “What are we going to tell him? That you’re just here for a few days? And then back to wherever you came from? Or like, can we tell him the truth?” She moved up and down the room. “What if he catches Reggie again somewhere in the house, after you guys supposedly left?” 

“The little dude knows, Flynn knows…” Alex said after a few moments. “I think your Dad should know the truth as well, especially now that he can see Reggie…” 

“Yeah, I mean, he won’t make you go see a therapist, if he can see us too, right?”, Luke chimed in and set his guitar down. “And wasn’t that your reasoning why you couldn’t tell him?” Julie looked at Luke; the easy smile on his face made her feel calmer almost immediately. 

“Yeah”, she said, nodding her head. “You’re right.” She looked at the boys. “How do we do this?” 

Julie felt like she was sitting on hot coals, waiting for her Dad to come into the studio. What if he didn’t believe her? What if he suddenly couldn’t see Reggie anymore? What if she had to go back to seeing that Dr Turner again?

“Julie?”, Ray knocked before he opened the door and stepped inside the studio. Julie was still in the middle of the room, pacing it back and forth, with the guys watching her from the couch. “What is going on?”

“Well, you know that the name of the band is _Julie and the Phantoms_ …”, Julie said. “Well, the name is quite literally what they are… The boys in my band are ghosts.” 

“Ghosts?” Ray said, looking at her taken aback. “Did Carlos get to you too? You know there is no such thing as ghosts, right?” Julie smiled. 

“But the thing is, ghosts do exist”, she said and looked at the three ghost boys sitting on the couch, smiling back at her. “Luke, Reggie and Alex were part of a band called _Sunset Curve_.” 

“Tell your friends!”, Reggie chimed in. Julie shot him a quick look, before slightly shaking her head with a smile on her face. 

“Anyway, they were part of that band, but they died the night they should have played the Orpheum in 1995…” She moved to the table and picked up the CD cover, showing her dad the picture of the boys inside. “See, that’s them…” Ray's eyea got bigger, because yes, just mere minutes ago, he had seen one of these boys inside his house, staring into their fridge. 

“The day you told me to clean out this studio, I found their CD and put it in the stereo and somehow, that made them come back as ghosts…” Julie explained further. “And while they are mostly invisible to other people, they can be seen when we are playing music together. Although they have been getting better at it and occasionally Carlos and Flynn can see them too…” She smiled at her Dad. “And you’ve seen Reggie now as well, so that’s great. He’s extremely excited about it.” 

“This is a lot to take in”, Ray said after a moment, before sinking into the chair across from the couch the boys were sitting on. “So, you’re telling me, that for the past months, we had three teenage ghosts living in our house?” 

“Basically, yeah”, Julie said with a slight shrug. 

“But we also like to roam around the city at night”, Luke said. 

“And sneak us into performing at clubs”, Reggie added with a grin. Ray blinked and stared at the couch. 

“Can you see them?”, Julie asked her dad, who shook his head. 

“But I thought I heard something just now…” He shook his head. “Are they here now?” Julie nodded and pointed towards the couch. 

“They’ve been here the whole time”, Julie said. “Reggie, this would be right moment to do whatever made you visible in the kitchen…” She added and stared at the boy, who jumped up from the couch immediately and looked as if he is concentrating very hard, what with the scrunched-up face and all that. Either that or he is about to take a dump… Julie hoped for the first. 

“I don’t know what I did”, he said after a moment, shoulders slumping forward in defeat. “I wish Ray could see me again…” He sighed and let himself fall back onto the couch, where Luke tried to cheer him up with a comforting shoulder bump. Neither of them noticed Ray staring at Reggie at first, until Alex punched Luke and made him look at Julie’s Dad. 

“Dude!”, Luke exclaimed. “He can see you!” Reggie looked up and stared at Ray, who looked right back. 

“Ray!” Reggie exclaimed. “You can see me?” Suddenly the boy was very exited and jumped up, running straight through the table, and stopped short right in front of the chair where Julie’s dad was seated. 

“He ran straight through the table, Julie!”, Ray said, looking at his daughter instead. 

“Yeah”, Julie shrugged. “They are ghosts, usually they phase through objects, although their Instruments are a different thing. Luke thinks it’s because they are attached to their souls…” She smiled, before moving next to Reggie, putting her hand on his shoulder, leaning slightly against him. “And I have no idea why, because not only am I able to see them all the time, but I can actually touch them as well… While other people still phase right through them.” 

“Three teenage ghost boys live in our garage…” Ray was looking at nothing specific, before looking back at his daughter. “And you can touch them…” He was shaking his head. “Three teenage boys, that can phase through stuff… live in our garage…. And you can touch them…” 

“Yeah”, Julie said and looked at her dad warily. Why was he repeating this? For a hot second Ray had looked like he had gone off the deep end, before his face sobered up. He leaned forward, elbows on his knees, hands folded, looking at his daughter with a serious face. 

“We need to set some ground rules then”, Ray said. “First of all, no ghost boys in your room, at any given time, understood?” Julie stared at her dad. 

“Dad!” Julie exclaimed. 

“I’m not blind, Jules”, Ray said. “So, no ghost boys, or boys in general in your room.” 

“See, even Ray sees it!” Reggie said with a knowing grin, looking between Luke and Julie. “You two ooze chemistry!” 

“Shut up, Reggie”, Luke and Julie said at the same time. 

“Didn’t we say that you should never use that word again?” Alex muttered. “Ooze… Just too weird of a word.”

“I think I need a bit…” Ray said, looing between his daughter and Reggie, the only ghost friend he can see. He stood from the chair and walked towards the door looking back once more at Reggie and Julie in the middle of the room, before walking out into the late afternoon heat. 

His teenage daughter is in a band with a bunch of dead teenage boys that aren’t hideous at all and have been living in their house for months now… He never thought that something like this would ever be a problem he had to worry about… Ray didn’t think that the talk about the birds and the bees would suffice in this situation… 

What a weird turn this had all taken, if only Rose would be here. She’d know how to handle this situation… She always knew what to do… 

Still, Ray looked at the closed door of the studio. He was grateful for the boys to have appeared in his daughter’s life. They made her realize how important music is and to go after her passions. They brought her back to live in many ways, so they couldn’t be bad, right? 

He just needed to get to know them.


	2. The Aftermath

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Basically just what I hope to be some fluffy conversations?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry that it took me like... 3 months to write this but... I've had a bit of a well... uncreative phase lately... I have been sitting at home in a lockdown since November 2nd and it's been hard for me to stay... well busy and active... 
> 
> But I've set a goal that I was going to finish this story as soon as possible and well, I kinda want to get it done by December 31st! :D

Julie stood still, staring at the door that had just closed behind her father. It was a lot to wrap your head around and she knew he needed time to process the fact, that they had a teenage ghost band living in their garage. Back when she first found out, she had needed time too, and she was definitely going to give him all the time he needs.

“Well, he took it better than expected”, Alex muttered, finally breaking the silence.

“But Ray kinda banned you from going through Julie’s dream box though, I mean with the no ghost boys in her room and all…”, Reggie said with a smirk towards Luke, who deadpanned, because that little sentence made Julie spin around and glare at the guitarist, who immediately put up his hands and bravely tried to hide behind Alex, which didn’t exactly work out, since the boys were both still sitting on the couch.

“It’s not like you’ve put anything new in there”, Luke mumbled. “You haven’t done that in a while.”

“And she won’t put anything new in there, because she’s smarter than you”, Alex said, which caused Luke to pout for a moment, before he nodded in agreement, while Alex got up from the couch, rubbing his neck. “I kinda have to go now… Didn’t think we were…” He trailed off, moving his hands around the room. “Doing this…”

“He’s got a date with Willie”, Reggie explained. 

“It’s not a date” Alex protested immediately.

“You’re meeting up with the boy you like, to do stuff…” Reggie said with a smirk.

“It’s a date, dude”, Luke chimed in, grinning broadly as Alex slowly turned red while he turned to Julie for help.

“I mean, it’s just the two of you, probably off to scream in a museum or something like that…” Julie said with a teasing smile, matching Reggie’s. “It’s clearly a date…”

“Okay, who told her?” Alex demanded to know from his two oldest friends, who each pointed a finger at the other. “Okay”, Alex breathed out, knowing that he’ll never find out who snitched, shaking his head. “I seriously need better friends…” Alex stared at the grinning weirdos in front of him, before poofing out with another shake of his head. 

Julie was the first to drop her smile. It’s been almost two months now since the Orpheum gig and things have been great lately. She had her boys, her family and she wanted to be happy that Alex had found somebody he really liked, but she still couldn’t shake of the worry because Caleb still owned Willie’s soul.

And the simple fact that Willie and Alex spent so much time together worries her a lot. Alex may be free of the stamp, but Willie isn’t and if Caleb finds out about the two of them… She could only imagine what Caleb would do to Willie when that happens. She turned back to the other boys and noticed that Luke was also frowning at the spot Alex had just disappeared.

“He’ll be fine”, Luke said after a moment, noticing her worried face, but he didn’t just say that for her. “They both will be fine.”

“You better be right”, Julie muttered. “Because if something bad happens to Willie-”

“Alex would blame it on himself”, Reggie ended that thought with a sober expression on his face.

“Exactly” Julie sighed, before shaking her head.

“I’m pretty sure they both know what’s at stake for Willie if they ever got caught”, Luke said and stood from the couch. “But it’s like they say, you risk a lot for the people you love.” He shrugged. “Sometimes it is better to risk it all and try to make every minute you have together count, instead of forever wondering what if you had just done something.”

Luke turned his back on Julie and Reggie, while he said that, and instead moved towards the dartboard next to the grand piano, pulling out the little darts, before starting to throw it at the board, mostly hitting his target. He knew instantly that he shouldn’t have said that. But it’s like with most things, what he just said was something that has been nagging him in the back of his head for months now. It was bound to slip out eventually, that’s just how his brain worked.

At least he didn’t completely slip up and said it in the context of Willie and Alex’s date… Something that left a sour taste in his mouth. He was happy for Alex, of course he was, still sometimes he couldn’t help it and the jealousy would sneak its way into his head… He really couldn’t help it, it just happened.

But it wasn’t because he was jealous that Alex was dating someone that wasn’t him, nah, they had that cleared up like 26 years ago. Luke and Alex were better of as just friends, they love each other as friends, best friends, a family, but not like Willie and Alex love each other.

Luke was jealous because they had something that he could never have…

“Alex really does like Willie”, Reggie mused. Luke paused at throwing the darts at the board for a moment, he had forgotten that he and Julie were still in the garage.

“And Willie seems to really like him back, if he’s willing to risk his life… or more like… afterlife”, Julie said. Reggie nodded with a smile. 

“They’ll be fine”, Luke said once more. He didn’t want to think about them anymore, he needed something else. “Just like your dad will be, once he wrapped his head around this whole thing here…”

“Yeah, he’s like really cool!” Reggie chimed in. “My dad would have freaked immediately, and I would have never even gotten a chance to explain. Your dad is chill.”

“Yeah, he is”, Julie said and smiled at the boys. “And I’m just glad, that I don’t have to lie to him anymore… I don’t know how much longer I could have lied my way through this whole hologram thing.”

“You’re really not good at lying”, Reggie said with serious face.

“I know!”, Julie admitted with a little giggle, before she sighed, and said, “but since, this thing with my dad is kinda sorted out now, I really need to get back to my homework, so…”

“Later Julie!” Reggie said with a happy smile and waved at the girl, as she walked to the door pushing it open.

“Have fun!”, Luke called after her with a smirk that was a good imitation of his usual smirks and only a little bit off. It seemed to work though, because it earned him a stink-eye in return, before she shut the garage door a little bit too forceful.

“So…” Reggie said with a big smirk on his face.

“Shut it Reggie”, Luke said and pointed a dart at his friend, a thing you should never do, unless said friend is already dead and can’t be harmed by it in any way. Reggie held up his hands, wiggling his eyebrows.

“Just remember, we don’t know how much time we have here and like you said, we should make every minute count.” The smirk is still very much on the bassist face and won’t be wiped out anytime soon. “But you do you, man”, he added and then he poofed out of the garage and left Luke on his own, twirling the last dart between his fingers, before aiming it at the board and walking back to his couch, collapsing on it, face down. He just should have said nothing…

Reggie poofed into the living room of the Molina house.

He knew that Carlos wasn’t home, he had baseball training, and Julie was probably already upstairs, finishing her homework like she said she would, but Ray should be around down here somewhere. Maybe it wasn’t exactly the best idea to seek Ray out, not after the bombshell they had just dropped on the man, but Reggie really wanted to talk to him.

Reggie walked around the house until he spotted Ray sitting at the kitchen table, stopping short in the doorway, which made Ray look up, because he had seen motion out of the corner of his eyes, locking his eyes on Reggie.

“So… you can still see me?” Reggie asked quietly.

“Yeah”, Ray breathed out smiling, and shaking his head. “You’re Reggie, right?” The boy nodded with big eyes. Whenever Ray had thought of ghosts in the past, silly sheet ghosts were what sprung into his head, or Caspar, but never in his wildest dreams would he have imagined them to look just like normal teenagers. Ghosts…

It wasn’t like he hadn’t known for a while, that the ancient projector Julie used to create Holograms wasn’t actually able to make any Holograms. Ray may be old, but he knew enough about technology to know, that nothing could make Holograms with perfect quality, like Julie had claimed her machine could.

Of course, he had never questioned it.

Ray was a firm believer that his kids would come to him, whenever they were ready to share something. He was never one to prod and pester them. He knew that kids sometimes needed freedom to make their own decisions. And he trusted his kids and he knew that Julie would have told him the truth eventually.

But ghosts? He would have never guessed that. That’s for sure. Even though the evidence had been provided months ago. If he only had believed Julie that night she came running from the studio, screaming bloody murder about ghosts in the studio, or the time Victoria came running outside, claiming a ghost had been messing with several objects in the house… He shook his head with a smile. It couldn’t be helped now, but he still wanted to know one thing.

“This is really something”, Ray muttered after a long pause. “How does it work? This whole ghost band thing? How can you pick up your instruments but at the same time walk through tables?” Ray wasn’t exactly coming to terms with the fact that his daughter was the front woman of a band that’s three quarters made up of undead teenagers, but his curiosity was slowly coming back. He had a lot more questions for the kids.

“Wait! Victoria was right about our house being haunted!” Ray blinked and stared at the teen across of him. “Whose idea was it to scare her out of the house? Ray asked and he was quite surprised when he found the boy turning a bright shade of red.

“Well, I wasn’t trying to scare her”, Reggie admitted sheepishly. “But she didn’t believe Carlos and I wanted to prove to her, that ghosts do exist and don’t worry, Luke and Alex told me what I did was not cool and I swear, I haven’t been doing stuff like that since then… Well, not here anyways. Might have done a few things to Bobby though, it’s fun messing with Bobby…” The teen rambled on. “But please don’t tell Julie I just said that. She’ll be so mad at me, because we promised her to stay away from that jerk”, Reggie’s eyes grew wider. Ray held up his hands and smiled.

“Then it’s just going to be our little secret”, Ray said with a secretive smirk, leaning forward onto the table. Reggie’s eyes widened for a moment, before he let himself relax and move closer to the table.

“You’re a pretty cool dad, you know”, Reggie said after a moment. “I mean… you let Julie play in a band with three strangers, and are so supportive, that garage gig you threw us days before the Orpheum was awesome and … that’s just really nice.”

“It’s the least I could do for you guys”, Ray said with a bigger smile. “After all you three brought Julie back to us. I would have been a horrible dad if I wouldn’t let her do the one thing she really loves to do. And if that’s being in a band with three ghosts, then that’s fine.” Ray paused for a moment. “And you’re no strangers, just to make that clear. You’re family now.”

“You really are the best dad ever!” Reggie said after a moment, his voice cracking. He wasn’t sure why he felt like he was on the verge of crying, but he was, and he couldn’t change anything about that. “You know I like talking to you, even though you hadn’t been able to see me until now. But I don’t know, it’s nice talking to you and even nicer now that you can hear what I’m saying.” Reggie was rambling again and willed himself to stop before he said to much or the wrong stuff and weirded Julie’s Dad out too much.

It hadn’t even been an hour since the man found out that there were three dead teenagers living in his garage, Reggie might have spent countless of hours with Ray, but Ray didn’t know about that. Reggie knew he shouldn’t feel as attached as he is to Julie’s dad, but he just couldn’t help it. Ray was just great. Ray was the best dad ever. But maybe, just maybe, Reggie shouldn’t lay it on too thick for the time being.

“Oh _Mijo”,_ Ray said with a similar look on his face, Reggie had seen when Carlos had found the French dip recipe. Fondness? Was that the right word for it? Whatever it was, it made Reggie smile back immediately. “I’m sorry that I couldn’t hear what you said before, but don’t hesitate to come to me, whenever you have something on your mind, okay? I’m always here to listen.”

“Thanks Ray”, Reggie said and didn’t care if the man saw him tearing up. This is nice. “But I’m not sure how often and how long I can stay visible…”

“We’ll find ways to communicate”, Ray assured him, blinking in the direction Reggie had just disappeared. “I’m guessing you’re still here, right?” The answer was simple, a chair being pulled out of under the table by what seemed to be thin air. Ray smiled in that direction. “I think of something, I promise _, mijo_.” The gears in his head already turning. Reggie tipped the chair back a few times, which Ray took as nodding. “And it’s really great to finally meet you.” Ray added with a big smile.

Reggie moved the chair again in a similar manner, before he put it back under the table. He didn’t want to leave Ray just yet, but he guessed the man would need a bit of alone time, to wrap his head around this situation. Not that he was much of use, now that he was invisible again…

Reggie made a show out of opening the back door and closing it, to show Ray, that he was now alone, which made the older man shake his head with a fond smile, before he leaned back in the chair and staired at the kitchen ceiling for a moment.

“Ghosts, can you believe it?” He said, his voice breathy and faint. “Of course, you can… You probably sent them here, am I right? You sent them here to bring our Julie back, right?” He smiled and shook his head. “Thank you. Thank you so much.”

He took a few deep breaths, closing his eyes, before he stood from the table and walked towards the stairs.

Julie had actually managed to finish most of her homework after she had gotten back to her room and even started the history assignment they got that was due in two weeks, so she was way ahead of time on that one, which is great, because the sooner she finished it, the more she could rehearse with the guys and work on the song she had started writing during boring calculus classes. The class for which she was now actually doing the homework.

But then there was a knock on her door. She knew it wasn’t one of the guys; Alex was the only one polite enough to actually knock and he probably wasn’t home yet; Reggie usually would walk straight into her room, his eyes usually covered until she made clear that she was decent or whatever; Luke rarely comes into her room, when she was there, but there had been occasions when she had found him snooping around more than once.

“Come in!” Julie called out, turning around on her desk chair to face the door. It was her Dad. “Hey”, she said and moved her head to the side, studying him. “How’re you doing… with everything?”

“Well…” Ray said clasping his hands together, while he sat down on the edge of her bed. “A lot of things actually make sense now.” He shrugged. “For weeks stuff has just magically appeared right in front of me, when I was looking for it, keys, my phone and things like that. That was always one of the boys, right?” Julie smiled and nodded her head, her curls bouncing up and down with the motion.

“Reggie really likes to hang out with you”, she explained. “If we’re not rehearsing or having a gig, he is like almost always glued to your side; he admires you a lot.” She pauses. “I think he just wants to help you out around here, with stuff like that.”

“I’ve been thinking I was going crazy, because I was looking all over the place and then the stuff was right there”, Ray shook his head, but he was smiling. “I really need to thank Reggie though; he saves me a lot of time.”

“I’m pretty sure you’ll get plenty of opportunities to do that”, Julie said with a grin. “Especially once he figures out, how this whole being-seen-by-you-thing works…”

“Ghosts”, Ray said and shook his head with a laugh. “Out of all things… They are ghosts.”

“Pretty weird, right?” Julie said with a grin.

“Yeah.” Ray admitted. “But I’m glad they appeared in your life… our life…” He smiled at his daughter. “They brought you back to us, and made you love music again. I’m very thankful for that.” Julie’s smile grew softer.

“We help each other”, Julie said. “We need each other.” She paused, thinking about her next words for a short moment. “They’re just as much a part of my family, as you, Flynn and Carlos are.” Ray smiled at that, happy that his daughter has found friends like that. Still…

“But I still don’t approve of any ghost boys in your room”, Ray said after a moment, “and if they’re in here, the door better be wide open.” He raised an expectant eyebrow at his daughter, who rolled her eyes.

“It’s not like that at all”, Julie said with a shake of her head. Ray smiled and nodded.

“I believe you”, he said with a nod. “And you know that I trust you.”

“Thanks Papi”, Julie said with a grin and stood from her desk. “That means a lot.” Ray put his hands around her shoulders and kissed the top of her head. “And thanks for not freaking out.” Ray laughed and shook his head.

“Oh, believe me, I’m getting there.” He said before he released his daughter from the hug. “But for now, I think I’m all good.” Julie grinned at that. This was going to be a great change. No more sneaking around with the guys, no more secrets. She had longed to be honest about it to her dad for so long now. This was really nice!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading it! Hope u liked it! :D

**Author's Note:**

> Here's a little something from Joey:
> 
> "Thanks for all the sweet words and all these replies! Seriously I didn't think I'd get as many as I got and it makes me really happy and especially motivated.  
> I will write more about reggie and rays relationship and have some ideas with carlos and the guys.  
> But im currently on vacation and will be back home by Thursday, with 4 days of work left before I got another vacation for two whole weeks. Plenty of time to write then. And im very motivated to write for this show and have a bunch of ideas joted down already!  
> So stay tuned!"
> 
> If she hasn't started writing on Tuesday (September 29, 2020) I'll drive down to Bavaria myself and kick her ass. She HAS to write more!


End file.
